*Flashback*
"You came early than I expected babel." My father basel spoke as he opened his closed eyes and catched 2 beast cores I have thrown at him.
I was on a mission to track and kill two rogue rank 6 beasts, who have broken the rule of our kingdom and were on a run.
I have been away from the kingdom for past 3 days due to a mission assigned to me and thus after returning I came to give father brief report about mission.
"So you faced an assassination attempt this time too huh, did you find the culprit?" father asked.
"No" I replied.
"It is an indication that you are on a right path to ascend the throne, I also faced many assassinations attempts in my time but they did nothing, but to make me stronger." My father said.
"Well the competition between you and your siblings will not last more than a year from what it see and I can already see the next king of our ophidian kingdom in you, who one day will surpass me and catch up to our ancestor." Father said motioning me to sit beside him.
We were currently far away from the kingdom, sitting on the top of a cliff where a garden and lake was situated, it was a perfect place for meditation, me and my father always used to hang out and practice here.
"Thank you for your praise father, I will lead our kingdom to new heights when I ascend the throne and after that you can retire and enjoy a peaceful life." I said.
"Very well said, today is a very joyous day for me because after 15 years, I have received a faint hope of advancing to the rumored 11th rank." Father said.
"That is wonderful news." I shouted in astonishment as father would become the first beast after ancestor to cross the threshold of rank 10.
"Now it depends on you my son to succeed me as soon as possible, so that I can go into seclusion and touch the realm of legends." My father said in excited tone because rank 11 beasts were scarce even in outside world.
"I have been thinking about it a lot but I had made up my mind, follow me babel." Father got up from his place and walked toward the nearby lake as I followed him.
We both entered the lake and swam till we reached a lonely black rock at the bottom of the lake.
My father breathed a poison breath on the black rock and some ancient runes appeared on the surface of the stone and few meters away from the stone, earth moved revealing a submerged tunnel.
Father entered inside the tunnel and I followed him as the earth behind us closed on its own.
After swimming for few minutes, we arrived at a spacious vacuum cave hidden deep underground the lake.
When I saw the content scattered inside the cave my mouth remained open because scattered everywhere were the higher ranked beast cores which numbered tens of thousands.
"Father, what is this place?" I asked as I examined the area not only cores but many books and artifacts were also thrown here and there.
"These are the things which will help you advance faster once you have ascended the throne.
After you have ascended the throne you will spend your time here in seclusion gaining strength and once you have evolved into an rank 9 beast, you will leave this place but also throughout your life, you will have to accumulate high ranking beast core here for your successor, that is also a job, every king has to fulfill." Father explained.
"That is wonderful, thank you for trusting me father." I said.
"Only a king is allowed to enter this chambers but I don't think delaying your ascension would be bear any fruit, I will give you all six months to fight and elect a king among yourself." Father said as he started to leave the cave and I followed him.
"But father, why did you show me the cave this early?" I asked looking at my father.
"I have been feeling uneasy from past few weeks, after those demons left; after they left the feeling doesn't leave and I wanted to let someone know about this place just in case..." Father said and left without completing his sentence but I understood his worries.
I was filled with endless gratitude after the trust father has shown me and I swore to never disappoint him.
We left the cave and appeared outside the lake as we both eyed the kingdom bursting with activity in the distance.
______
After shouting curses at bamel, babel was in Trans for few second as if a distant memory has resurfaced in his mind but soon he regained his composure.
"Why didn't other siblings help father and what was the guardian family doing?" babel asked.
Babel has informed me about the guardian family, which was formed by the other member of the royal family, who failed in ascension ceremony, the current as well as previous generation.
"Guardian family was also annihilated by demons, when they overtook the kingdom." barita replied but didn't talk about her other siblings.
"Did you also conspire with your eldest brother?" I asked creating electric sparks between my fingers because before reinforcement arrives we have to extract as much information as we can.
"So what was I supposed to do ha, eldest brother was a rank 7 beast and he killed our 3 brothers who stood up with father to fight, on top of that he had brought one Earl and one Viscount rank demon with him." She shouted once again.
"Tell me about the strength of the demons which your brother has brought." I asked.
"There are two demons, one ranked Earl and other Viscount in outside world."
"The name of viscount ranked demon is Makia and he specializes in aura attack and uses black flames, the other demon I don't know much about him, I have only seen him use aura to fight against father and a fact that he is too strong." She said.
"Did you have any involvement in framing babel for bam's murder?" I asked barita.
"….." she remained silent but I didn't intend to not hear any answer and therefore I increased the intensity of electric shock.
"Okay, I had slight involvement; I had helped bamel because he was sorting out who was his ally and whom he should mark as his enemy."
"And believe me he has killed all other siblings who have gone against him."
"When he explained me that two powerful demons have agreed to help him regain the throne, it was too late to do anything, even if I inform father about his plans, no extent of preparation would have helped us overcome this crisis." she said trying to sound like a victim and not traitor.
"Maybe your father would have evacuated everyone and himself?" I said.
"Father was too conceited, he would have never agreed to evacuate." She replied.
"So you decided to join your brother's rebellion to survive but you will still die, it would have been better to die as a righteous daughter than becoming a traitor." I said.
"Do you think you can kill eldest brother and those two demons with the help of this outsider, if you think that you can, than you are dead wrong brother." She said.
"Oh we win in a fight against those demons or not have nothing to do with you." I said.
"Please brother, let's us all get out of here before those demon comes, you don't know how powerful they are.
Father was fighting the viscount ranked demon Makia alone but even he was giving him a hard time and when father was about to kill him, the second demon acted and subdued our father with only two moves, do you understand how powerful they are?" She shouted.
"What happened to father's beast core?" Babel asked.
"After father died, eldest brother consumed his core and now he is a rank 9 beast, even if you have struck a jackpot and managed to evolve into a rank 8 beast you can't face him." Barita said.
"What happened to other members of the family?" babel asked once again.
"Bamel has killed all three sisters except me and excluding you and him, only two brothers are alive and our mother is imprisoned inside the prison because she opposed the actions of elder brother." She answered.
"I understand the internal power struggle of our family, but why were you killing the innocent citizens?" Babel asked.
"Because until the two demons have found the ancestor's beast core they will stay in the kingdom and they wanted to consume beast cores to increase their soul force.
They had made agreement with bamel to keep 10% population alive while they would kill and eat rest of the beast cores." As she spoke, I punched the nearby wall out of frustration because they were indirectly robbing me out of my treasures.
"He is not one of us, so why is he frustrated?" Barita asked but babel remained silent.
"You don't have to buy any more time barita, I think the reinforcement you were waiting for has arrived." I said looking at the end of the road from where one demon and three beasts approached our location floating in the air.
The demon must be rank 6 above entity and beast bamel has evolved into a rank 9 beast thus they can manipulate mana in the atmosphere and fly.
Merlin has told me that beasts, who have evolved to the rank 7 were able to fly in the air using external mana manipulation but in this dimension pocket something was wrong with beasts because they could only perform external mana manipulation after they have evolved into an rank 9 beast.
"Lord Eric, I can handle my brother, but I don't think I will be able to help much in a fight against demons." Babel said and I pulled out the fake holy sword from the ground preparing to fight because I didn't have much expectation from babel in a fight against demons anyway.
"Brother, please if you want to fight them do so, but let me escape from here." Barita pleaded to babel but he had no intention of sparing her and opened his mouth wide to fire a poison breath at her.
"Wait babel, this death is too light for her; we will let her feel true despair, let her see the true face of his brother." I said and babel stopped and looked at me confusedly while I released the [Lightning chain] spell.
"Ha-ha-ha brother you have come to save me, see who has returned your prey, kill him and save me brother please…" Berita shouted behind me while I evaluated the levels of strength of our newly arrived guests.
"Shut up you bitch, don't spoil this brothers reunion." bamel said eying babel and barita's mouth remained open in disbelief of his brother's statement.
*****
A/N: The fight ahead may be long but it will give you insight into how the power system works for different races, please have patience and enjoy the chapter.